In the current digital age, the trend is that more and more tasks involve use of information technology (IT) and digital media. For example, digital books and e-book readers are becoming very popular and are supplanting printed books and other printed publications, and exchanges of such information often are now performed via e-mail.
However, e-mail is a possible communication mode only when the e-mail address of the targeted audience is known. Further, when the communication to such targeted audience is by a spam, it can be annoying to the recipients of the spam and is a burden to the IT system at large. From the perspective of interests of society and the IT market at large, such burden can outweigh the benefits of transferring digital information to a general audience who may or (or more likely) may not be interested in receiving the spam communication.
There is also significant interest, within niche markets, for use of IT in virtual reality (VR) applications. Computer games and computer simulations, from which users can develop reactive skills, are some examples that have been present for several decades now, but other VR applications have been in place as well in the last several years. Such VR applications are used in entertainment, education, business, healthcare, scientific and other research, government, as well as many other sectors of society.
On the other hand, as digital handsets having advanced user interface and image and/or video capture applications become commonplace, there is a developing market for augmented reality applications. Augmented reality (AR) is a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment which is augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics, location information, etc., to enhance the audience's current perception of reality (whereas virtual reality replaces the real world with a simulated one).
There is a need to find useful applications of augmented reality today.